Supreme Judicial Court

A shareholders’ challenge to a merger transaction proposed by the board of directors of EMC Corp. could only be brought as a derivative action on behalf of the corporation — not directly against the board members, the Supreme Judicial Court ...

The Supreme Judicial Court soon will consider the question of whether the state’s legalization of medical marijuana in 2012 carries with it employment protections for a patient’s use of the drug outside the workplace. The plaintiff in Barbuto v. Advantage ...

Where a defendant was convicted of kidnapping and assault and battery arising out of an incident of domestic violence, (1) the judge committed no reversible error in denying the defendant’s peremptory challenge of a female juror or in admitting prior ...

Where jurors during their deliberations were exposed to the contents of a binder belonging to the trial judge that contained copies of various motions, photographs and transcripts, including materials that had been excluded as evidence at trial, the trial judge ...

Where two defendants were indicted on charges of first-degree murder, carrying a firearm without a license, carrying a loaded firearm without a license, and armed robbery, the convictions must be affirmed despite their assertions of error in (1) the denial ...

The Supreme Judicial Court now has in its hands the names of four finalists to become the state’s second trial court administrator, succeeding Lewis H. “Harry” Spence, who is set to retire. Getting to that point, however, has been a ...

Where the defendant appeals from his murder conviction and from the denial of his motion for a new trial, both must be affirmed because (1) the defendant was not deprived of the effective assistance of trial counsel when his attorney ...

Where, following a jury-waived trial in District Court, a judge found the defendant guilty of breaking and entering in the daytime with the intent to commit a felony and larceny of property over $250, both judgments must be reversed because ...

Where defendants in a defamation suit filed a special motion to dismiss under the anti-SLAPP statute, a Superior Court judge erred in denying the motion, as the defendants’ statements qualified as petitioning activity despite the fact that they were made ...

A defendant’s fingerprint on a window that was accessible to the general public was not enough, by itself, to prove that he was the person who committed a break-in, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled. When police investigated a robbery ...